southpaw

I noticed that the passing was also horrible in both games as well as in Mankato. I have a feeling this is more to do with the differences between Hakstol's system (more break-out, fly through the neutral zone) and Blais' system (control the neutral zone). The players are used to short crisp passes, not long outlet passes. This system also leads to a couple things: 1) Less shots on net (for now). As long as players are missing the long passes, there will be more turnovers resulting in less shots. 2) Less defense by the forwards. If they are constantly looking for that long pass, they are way out of position for when the puck is stolen. They have to come back a lot further, than if you just send one through the middle and two along the wings. 3) Defensemen can easily be read. Minnesota picked up on it on Saturday night. When you try for long bombs, there is much more room to step into a lane and pick off the puck. If you do short crisp passes, you cut that lane size in half and decrease the number of turnovers. 4) Many odd-man rushes against teams that have a hard forecheck. When you have 2-3 guys constantly pressuring your defense and get underneath your forwards in the neutral zone, it will usually lead to 3 on 2's, 3 on 1s, and 2 on 1s. This was the case this weekend. It lead to more shots for Minnesota and obviously more goals. However, I think the UND defense did an excellent job of shutting down all but the 3 on 2s...where MN would drop the puck to the 3rd guy in and he'd fire a shot from the slot. People just need to realize that this isn't the same system that was in place when Blais was around, so its going to take the players time to adjust. Remember, all of the players were recruited for Blais' system. He had them hand-picked specifically to do certain things, and right now they are being asked to do things that they haven't done in their college careers.

Jason Blake will be at Barnes and Noble book store saturday (tomorrow) from 4-6 to sign stuff.

Somebody was saying that, if you're in GF, you can see it at "The Penalty Box" for $6? Otherwise... At 14.95 I'd rather listen to Hennessey on the internet radio...are they doing this game? I thought they did all the road games.

Couple things I noticed: Staffords goal was absolutely amazing. My friends and I just sat there for a couple seconds before celebrating, because we weren't sure if that play had just happened. Zajac and Stafford have some awesome communication on the ice. Throw anyone on that line with them and they could be the top scoring line in the WCHA if not the country. Radke looked tentative a bit, so did Lammy. I thought he had trouble with his first couple saves, not being able to find the puck. He wasn't really ever challenged a lot. I wish Manitoba would have had a 2 on 0, just so Lammy could get some good experience in net. The two student sections are pretty divided again. 108 is a lot better at cheering together, however they have some idiots. In 109, where i sit, there are about 10-15 die-hards all in a cluster of three rows, so we pretty much carry the section. However, in front of us there were 8 seats open, two to the side of us, and a couple rows down there were 6 freshmen girls who clapped once during the entire game. Of course, they weren't there for most of the first period, so you could imagine they would have clapped at least once more had they been there on time.

It's just agenda setting. It's a hot topic at UND...if the Herald writes an editorial here or there, the topic will continue. The Herald then becomes the main source for information on the subject and people will then pay money to buy the Herald and read what they have to say. It's just a good business policy.

Give the students 107-110 in the lower bowl, that way they won't infringe on people who wish to sit and watch the games. Do either 1) Camp out at Memorial Stadium, have a giant board with a diagram of the seats. Let students start camping Thursday night and stay til Sunday. Allow alcohol, charge students $5-10 more per season for tickets to help pay for some security. First come first serve. Keep the card-stamp process, as to help prevent budging on Sunday. 2) General Admission, however when students are let into the game, swipe both their student ID. That way, if any student needs to be kicked out, you can swipe his ID and make it so that student cannot get back into any hockey games for the remainder of the season. If it comes down to it, kick some students out, the other students will then know that the Ralph is serious and they will behave themselves. 3) Do a lottery system, but announce it more than 5 hours before you're actually going to do it. Have it be weighted by years students have gotten tickets, followed by seniority.

Nate and i played a couple softball tournaments together this summer...he said he definitely wants to go to UND, however NDSU is still an option. He said UMD isn't even on his list.

Actually...i think he was referring to the 2nd part of the post...where comes off as if he's saying "once NDSU start recruiting a player, thats when UND starts recruiting them."

As long as there is a system in place where the most-die hard fans get those tickets in the lower bowl, it will be packed. The bad thing about trying to get more lower bowl tickets for next year, is that the Ralph will use this year as an example. I guarantee you it will be barely half-full because of the way student government dropped the ball with the lottery.

I have a puck from pre-97, one from post-2000 and one from 2002 (new logo). The first two have the Notre Dame style ND, along with the number of national championships represented in stars. The 2001 one has the new Sioux Logo, along with 7 stars.

No its not sold out every game, obviously. However you can bet that at least half of the upper deck will be sold this year for every game. Sure we get seats, but they limit the noise factor that the students UNDOUBTEDLY bring to the game. Give the students sections 107-110 and 208 up top and you will have a much better atmosphere at the Ralph. We don't just want any tickets that the Ralph will throw at us...we want the tickets that allow us to support our team and actually make a difference in the third period when we're down by one with three minutes remaining. You can't deny that students are the ones who are going to stand up before the pumped in music and signs flashing "stand up" are needed.

"This year, there were only 630 lower bowl seats available for student season tickets. Such scarcity caused students to miss classes as they joined the long lines outside Ralph Engelstad Arena." The line formed at 8:30 Thursday night...please let me know who missed class that late? As for camping out all day Friday/some of Sat...nobody had to stay there. The raffle was the only thing that caused students to miss any classes. Go back to General Admission, yet swipe student ID's along with the tickets...that way if you kick a student out you can swipe their card and make it so they can't get back in for the rest of the year. Then have an appeal process for students who are kicked out to try and fight their bannishment from hockey.

I agree completely with this plan. However, I say limit the camping out to 3 days. Start the line on Thursday night and have people hang out til Sunday. I'm a die-hard fan, however there's a block on Thursday where none of my 4 people would have been able to be there. So for us to get screwed, even had we been there on Monday because we have something on Thursday isn't cool. Fridays are good day to stand in line, because its Friday. Same with Saturday and Sunday.

Personally, I would go with GVSU since I've gotten extremely sick of NDSU fans and their complaining. The GVSU fans i've experience have been nothing but awesome.

Kupchella has done an excellent job on the academic side of things...however on the athletic side there is definitely room for improvement.

dakota hall was formerly a hotel in town...i think it was one or maybe two years ago that the University bought it and is now using it as a dorm.

Just like to send out a big f you to the student senate and those responsible for changing the setup to a lottery. Congrats on making students sit outside for 7 hours before you tell them that you are going to give them less than 1 in 8 chances of getting tickets. Of course, when you have 300+ students sitting peacefully outside, theres such a huge chance of people getting injured, so obviously you need to spend 4 hours trying to figure out the best way to screw over the most die-hard fans. As much as I want my seats, I would love to see the student section half empty because all of the "fans" who get tickets don't actually care about hockey, but just go every now and then because they don't have any frat to go to to play beer pong. Good job to everyone involved, this really made my day and my weekend.

They are looking for a host and possibly a reporter for their pre-game and intermission shows that are produced at the Ralph in the concourse.

no, you're dumb

Obviously, the article PCM wrote doesn't come out and say that Bochenski will definitely leave school for the NHL, however the title "Bochenski to Bolt" tells you taht he is going to and not that he may bolt. If I said "Bush to be reelected," i don't think many people would let it slide if he didnt and i used the reason that i really meant he "may" be reelected. My main question is...was it really news to say that Bochenski might eventually leave school early if the money is there? I think you could say that about any player in the NCAAs. If an NHL offers them enough money, theres a very very good chance that they will leave early for that money. Once something happens, write an article about it...but just talking about what could possibly happen and using a title that says its going to happen isnt news.

It has almost been two weeks since this "story" was first reported, yet absolutely nothing has happened. Anyone know what is going on?

Possibly...I wonder if the recruiting factor played any part in the asst. coach hiring. A majority of USHL players have already committed to schools, however there is still a nice hockey factory in Warroad full of high school kids that have yet to give verbals.

Other notable draft picks by WHA - Drew Stafford went 65th to Dallas Matt Greene was drafted at 92 by Dallas Matt Smaby was 95th to Halifax Jordan Parise was picked 136th to Founders Franchise Matt Jones was 162 to Halifax Travis Zajac was 200th to Founders Franchise Phillipe Lamoureaux went 204 to Dallas Brady Murray was 226th to Halifax In the Free Agent Draft Brian Lundbohm went 202nd to Dallas James Patrick 236 to Toronto

So PCM, im sure you saw that team play, how good were they?